Adequate shelter is a basic need for survival, yet millions throughout the world live in inadequate housing. It is dangerous to their health, hurtful to their spirits, and contrary to all development goals. The problem persists because of its magnitude. A massive effort will be required to make progress against it.
Stabilized soil is a building material which can cut building costs substantially below those of traditional concrete-block methods. Its problem is that it must be compacted with between 400 and 700 psi to be suitable for construction use. In rural areas, this must be accomplished through manual means in a process which can produce a house quickly. The method utilized must be transportable to any location by mule and must be able to withstand abuse by nature and man. It must be enough to be repaired in the field, but clever enough to use mechanical advantage to convert human muscle into solid bricks. Construire en Terre (CRATerre, Groupement Graphique GAMMA: Paris 1979) summarizes the 14 manually-powered designs available on the world market (p. 140) and describes in detail the 5 commercially available models. The maximum available production rate now available of standard-sized construction bricks (29.3.times.14.0.times.8.9 cm) is 425 blocks per day. This translates into one house every two weeks per machine. When Calcutta has 1,700,000 homeless squatters officially reported and Indonesia admits to a housing shortage of 16 million dwellings, this is not an acceptable rate.